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ASSEMBLY CHARACTERISTICS DEVELOPING

E.C.B. I wondered whether it would be profitable to observe how light as to the assembly develops in this book. While of course things overlap to some extent, it seems to me that in chapter 2 and in chapter 9 the assembly is presented as a sphere of salvation. Verse 31 of chapter 9 shows that the assemblies were brought to rest -- "The assemblies then had peace " -- and I wondered whether that was in a sense the culmination of the presentation of the assembly as a sphere of salvation and of peace, and whether Paul did not find his entrance into the assembly as a sphere of salvation. But in chapter 9 something else begins to be introduced, just hinted at but developed later in Paul's ministry - "Why dost thou persecute me?" Persecution of the assembly had arisen on the occasion of the martyrdom of Stephen, and Saul was in that, but in chapter 9 Jesus refers to the assembly as "me", thus introducing something that is not the same thought as a sphere of salvation; it is the church which is His body. I alluded to the verses in chapter 13 because there is the sense of the assembly at peace, as we had in chapter 9, but things have now taken on a new direction, that is that they are ministering to the Lord. It seems to me as if the truth and experience in the assembly has moved from being a sphere of salvation for men to being a sphere in which the Lord or God is going to be served. This is developed, of course, a great deal in the epistle to the Ephesians, especially in chapter 3 where the assembly is no longer described as a sphere of salvation but as the entity through which the service of God proceeds unto all generations of the age of ages. I was rather led to this by noticing remarks of Mr Taylor, sen that the pristine church is not the same as Paul's church. It is the same material and, of course, the whole substance was there when the Holy Spirit came and filled the house where they were sitting; but initially the need was for the knowledge of the assembly as a sphere of salvation. Then it develops, especially through what the Lord gave to Paul, into what is known to be Christ's body and that in which ministry to the Lord proceeds. Do you think that?

J.L. It sounds very interesting and instructive. Do you think the assembly as a sphere of salvation relates to the provisional time, whereas what the assembly is as the vessel in which there is glory to God is eternal and related to the purpose of God?

E.C.B. I think that is right. It seems to me that the things that develop in chapters 4, 5 and 6 relate to the assembly as a sphere of salvation; they do not relate to it directly as a vessel for the service of God. Outward persecution brings to light that the assembly is a sphere of salvation. Issues such as Ananias and Sapphira arise internally and need judgment, which brings out that the assembly is a sphere of salvation, and the administration that was entrusted to Stephen and six others because of the complaints about the widows also relates to the assembly as a sphere of salvation. That is the place into which Saul, as needing salvation, is brought. It is not that we obtain eternal salvation through the assembly - we obtain that through the work of Christ - but we need a sphere in which salvation can be enjoyed. It seems to me that that character of things runs up to chapter 9 at which point other things begin to be developed. That is why I read in chapter 2 that "the Lord added.... those that were to be saved". That is, He had here a place into which His saved ones could be brought.

F.H. Is it a sphere too that is marked by unity of thought? "With one accord", they are all thinking the same thing and doing the same thing.

E.C.B. Yes, that is a characteristic of salvation, that the assembly is a sphere of unity. There is a reference in the Psalms to being hidden "from the strife of tongues", Ps 31: 20. The assembly should be known as a sphere of salvation from that kind of thing, so that it becomes a place where peace and rest are enjoyed. The suggestion that there was no salvation outside the assembly is, of course, a thing that has long been contested because of the special claims that Rome made in relation to it, saying that there was no salvation outside the church and implying that you could not be saved eternally outside the church. That is not what is meant by the assembly as a sphere of salvation; it is a sphere of protection and enjoyment and of safety at the present time where, according to Acts 2, the Lord puts His saved people. He takes them up and puts them into the assembly, adds to the assembly those who are being saved.

J.M. Would it be particularly so for the young people today? I was thinking of all that they are exposed to and what it is to be in a sphere like this where there is the knowledge of God and His things.

E.C.B. I am sure that is right. I think that chapters 4, 5 and 6, as fitting into the history, bear on that and support it because they show that, if there is external opposition, there is a protected place; if evil arises, there is a place where people will deal with it and there is protection from it; and if there is murmuring, which bears on what Mr Hepburn said as to unity, there is the skill and capacity to deal with that; and the murmuring is not dealt with by argument but by faith and the Holy Spirit and wisdom and power. I think we should seek, not only to encourage our young people that the assembly is a place of safety, but that we should demonstrate to them that it is.

Ques. Is the main thought the breaking of bread?

E.C.B. Well, it says "Every day, being constantly in the temple with one accord and breaking bread in the house"; that helps to suggest to us that what belonged to the assembly was now being separated from the temple, because the breaking of bread was now proceeding in the house. What belongs to the assembly is not the remodelling of something that has preceded it to fit another day; it is entirely new. So the breaking of bread does not proceed in the temple, but in the house and that shows the detachment of the assembly from surrounding things. Then as we are together for the breaking of bread we prove in a very special way, I think the salvation that is there. Because, after all, at the Supper every opposing thing is excluded. If you do not feel safe at the Supper there is doubt about your relations with the Lord. But then, if your relations with the Lord are right, you will enjoy the place of salvation that you find at the Supper.

J.L. Is this really like rest and protection in the wilderness, as in Numbers 10, the ark taking the initiative, going into the lead, dealing with every opposing element, and "when it rested", as if the Lord would give us to experience conditions of rest in wilderness circumstances.

E.C.B. I think that is right: the assembly is provided for us as that. We, of course, have not the whole assembly available to us, but al the assembly truth is available and the thing is to hold to that in a broken day. In a broken day you do not give up things because the day is broken, you cling the more tenaciously to the substance. And while we are not able to speak boastfully of anything, let us at least cling to the truth. The Lord has provided and maintained a place of salvation, as you say, in the wilderness where ultimately rest is enjoyed. Do you feel it is right that that is what Saul was brought into. He was not, in Acts 9, brought into the assembly in which there would be glory to God to all generations of the age of ages. He needed a place of salvation and he was brought into it. After all, he was surrounded by people who owed him a grudge, to say the least.

J.L. Yes. Do you think that most of us, having been brought up in households where Christ was loved and where the gospel had a place, found a sphere of salvation, and is baptism in that connection? Then the assembly is greater than that, a link, as you say, with the Lord's supper and what that means.

E.C.B. Yes; of course, when we are baptised we are not conscious of what is happening and, therefore, if we have households and have our children baptised, it behoves us to maintain our household in relation to a sphere of salvation and as a sphere of salvation in itself. The things that are prescribed for the elders and the overseers in Timothy indicate that these are men who would, wherever they were, preserve a sphere of salvation. I think it is one of the initial aspects of the assembly by way of teaching, but not one that we actually arrive at first in experience. So that the attitude of a young soul converted and desiring to take the Lord' s supper - and it would be good if they do desire to take the Lord's supper and they should be encouraged in it - would be responsiveness to Christ and to God. Their first attitude is ministering Lord and, after that, they find that it is a salvation, but historically the sphere was brought out first. Do you think that is right?

J.L. I think that is very fine.

A.J.W. It would be a place where you would find relief from much that may be on your spirit in the way of pressure?

E.C.B. That is why I thought that the verses at the end of Acts 9, that the “assemblies then throughout the whole of Judaea … had peace." show that there was a place of salvation now known practically and everyone in the assembly was in it. Saul represented what presented physical insecurity to them, and a good deal of mental insecurity and restlessness no doubt, but the Lord had operated to convert him and then He brings to light that the assembly is a place in which peace is known. I am sure that that is what it should be to us. Do you think that?

A.J.W. Yes, I think it is very encouraging, especially in a day of such outward weakness and breakdown, that these things should be learned by way of experience by us. The assembly is practical experience, is it not?

E.C.B. Yes, if it is not, we are not really touching it. The assembly is not exactly a number of people together in one place, although that is an aspect of it, but the assembly is an inward experience. I thought Acts 9 showed that the Lord had a sphere here in which He could bring into the experience of salvation the man who had brought the reverse of salvation to so many people. He is really converted and given a place where he himself will be safe. The first thing is he will be saved from himself. Do you think that?

J.M. Yes, that is very encouraging. It goes on to say "Being edified and walking in the fear of the Lord". They were in fear of Saul at one time. Would "in the fear of the Lord" bear on this side of salvation?

E.C.B. Yes, very much. We need to maintain it amongst us and to demonstrate that it is a thing that is maintained. The fear of the Lord would be marking us because it is to Him that we are gathering whenever we come and we expect Him to be there; therefore we would be together in His fear. This helps us to maintain ourselves in the spirit of salvation.

J.L. I think the fact that Saul would have the brethren tell him what to do shows how he is saved from himself. He comes under direction.

E.C.B. Yes, it was the best kind of protection too. The Lord had met him on the way and he had had an experience greater than any of us has ever had. But he goes into Damascus and a man greets him and says "brother". This is someone who in the previous chapter had been persecuting men and women; "Saul ravaged the assembly, entering into the houses one after another, and dragging off both men and women delivered them up to prison", Acts 8: 3. He goes into the assembly and a man says to him "brother", which suggests that salvation is actually known there and that Ananias lived as if the assembly was a sphere of salvation. So while he had said to the Lord, 'I know all about this man', when he is actually confronted with him he greets him as if he is not afraid of anything: he is not afraid that Saul is going to take him to prison, he says "brother". That seems to me to suggest normal relationships in the assembly which help to give us the assurance we need that it is a place in which we are safe.

F.H. Then is salvation linked with teaching - edification? We are taught that the assembly does not teach or preach. Say something as to the side of teaching in the assembly.

E.C.B. The assembly is a sphere in which there is teaching. As Mr Darby says often, the assembly does not teach, it is taught, and the assembly is subject to the teaching of Christ and of the Spirit. It does not itself teach, but it is the place in which teaching and preaching proceed. The assembly does not preach but the preaching is enriched by going out against the background of the assembly. These things we need to understand and to be developed in. For instance, on a practical point that has arisen in one or two places, the assembly does not publish ministry: a brother may publish it. A brother might say something to someone who was doing it. If there was error the assembly might come into it. The assembly has no part in teaching, it is a taught vessel and an edified vessel.

J.L. Nor does it own property.

E.C.B. No, hence it follows that property can hardly be owned on its behalf, for instance, by "trustees". It shows that the man who loved the nation and built a synagogue was a man that was right. We resolved that problem locally by several brethren together owning the place, but they are not trustees for it, it is their room.

I think it is helpful to us to see how the Lord first established that the assembly was a place of security before He began to develop things in it which were on a very much greater and more intimate level, as if He would secure the base and, having secured the base, He was then free to develop things. So there is no real liberty to speak to people about the church being Christ's body if they say 'Where can I find it; if I go to such and such a place I do not know what is going to happen, everything is all over the place, or something like that. It seems to me that the establishment of salvation in the assembly is needed so as to give people the security from which to proceed into the deeper aspects of the truth.

J.L. So there were eight souls in Noah's time carried through the deluge, and on the renewed earth you find the burnt offering. I was thinking of what you have suggested, the place of safety and salvation.

E.C.B. We may need to be revived in the sense that the assembly is the place of salvation. It helps us to find our place in it and to desire our place in it. You might say the assembly is here anyway and, since I am a believer and have the Spirit, I am of the assembly; and nobody could deny that. But the assembly known as a sphere of salvation demands its practical expression and my participation in it. It has been gracious of the Lord to provide a safe place for His people in days of very great difficulty.

A.J.W. So it is the administration publicly worked out in the way of protection. As the chapter proceeds you find the brethren (they are disciples) letting Paul down in a basket. How they would endeavour to protect him!

E.C.B. Yes exactly; they do not turn him out, as it were, into the street where he might fall into someone else’s hand; they show that there are people characterised by care for one another because they belong to what is characteristically a place of salvation. They are trying to save Saul; "and he escaped their hands" as it says.

A.J.W. I think what you are saying shows us that the kind of administration we proceeded with for a long time was not this. It was really an administration of death.

E.C.B. Yes; administration in the assembly should never produce fear except the fear of the Lord. If administration is producing fear of men it shows that Christ characteristically is displaced in the company.

J.L. Would not the experience of many young persons have been that the fact that they are committed to the Lord and are breaking bread forms a great bulwark against the overtures of the world. The very fact that they are calling on His name, that they belong to the assembly, having the Spirit, forms a great protection against overtures that the devil would bring in.

E.C.B. I am sure that is right practically. We do not always see what kind of effect being at the Supper has on the young people. We can tell more as to the young brothers because they take part, but you do not know what is actually going through the experience of the young sisters; but if you follow them through the week you might discover that more had been effected than you thought. And, as you say, the fact of taking the Supper in itself works out for protection in the external circumstances. Do you not think, that if you have taken the Supper on the basis that you are showing forth His death until He come - that is really that you are standing here for His rights until He takes them up Himself - you are bound to go through the week as if you owned His rights over you and nobody else's rights. "Other lords than thee have had dominion over us" (Isa 26: 13) is a word that should apply only in the past tense to someone who is taking the Supper.

I thought in regard to chapter 9, having established these things and brought them out explicitly in chapter 2 and then by the examples of what happens in the intervening chapters, the Lord in what He says to Saul indicates that He is ready to disclose greater things about the assembly. The Lord does not say to Peter in chapter 2, This is Me; He does not bring that in immediately the Spirit came and filled the house. It waits until there is full understanding that there is a safe place here in which people can be. It was there in chapter 2, but you are given experience of salvation first. Now the Lord says to Saul, "Why dost thou persecute me?", and this, as we well know, shows him that the Lord's view of the assembly was that it was His body. But that is not brought out until, at least as it seems to me, the experience of salvation is mature. The Lord just suggests it here, but the fulness of it waits until Paul writes the epistles, especially that to the Ephesians.

F.H. Say something as to he comfort of the Holy Spirit coming in at this juncture.

E.C.B. I think that the Spirit is fulfilling the function that Jesus had said He would fulfil - "I will send to you" another Comforter, John 15: 26. I do not think this is just in the sense that the Holy Spirit was consoling, telling people to be at rest and at peace, and that kind of thing; I think the comfort of the Holy Spirit here involved that He was now fully taking up the service that Jesus had foretold in John 14, 15 and 16 - "He will give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor know him" (chap 14: 16), and "He shall guide you into all the truth... and he will announce to you what is coming. He shall glorify me", chap 16: 13, 14. I think it is these things that are bringing increase into the assembly. Do you think that?

F.H. I think that is helpful It is a confirming sort of expression.

E.C.B. Exactly. Verse 31 has many suggestions in it as to the way in which we might expect increase at the present time - the assemblies were increased, they were "edified and walking in the fear of the Lord, and were increased through the comfort of the Holy Spirit". That suggests that people were now being added on the basis of spiritual substance in themselves. This is not the Lord adding three thousand souls or counting numbers; it seems to me to be increase in quality. It may well be, and probably was, that additional people were brought in, but I think what is in view here is increase in quality. But you do not get increase in quality unless you first arrive at experience of rest in the assembly. Quality does not go alongside of tension.

Rem. In the experience of the assembly is there heavenly help in the sphere of salvation?

E.C.B. I am sure that the assembly should be a place where what is heavenly is experienced now. It is the only heavenly entity on the earth. There had never been a heavenly entity on the earth till the assembly was here, save for the Lord Jesus. Even when He was here He said "The Son of man who is in heaven", John 3: 13. After He had gone back to the Father the Spirit came, but the only vessel that there has been that is heavenly is the assembly. It continues and will continue, and when it comes out in display after the rapture it will still be the vessel of heavenly influence on the earth. We should find in it now opportunity for heavenly experience, outof-the-world experience. These things are often common in our language but they need to be more in our practical experience and objective.

A.J.W. Is that why you referred at the outset to the assembly in her pristine beauty and the assembly in Paul's ministry?

E.C.B. Yes, I was struck with what Mr Taylor sen said as to that, that the pristine assembly is not the same as Paul's assembly. Of course the same material was there, the same Spirit was there, the same truth was available for it. But the queen in Psalm 45 is brought to the king in raiment of embroidery, and I think that is what Paul brings in. So what was all there potentially at the beginning is not brought out in fulness. You do not actually get the assembly as the sphere of glory to God unto all generations of the age of ages until Paul 's ministry is at its highest level. What do you think?

A.J.W. I wondered if you had in mind how Paul's ministry came out to the gentiles and out of them the assembly was formed.

E.C.B. Yes, that is true. That helps us to see how the assembly is brought to light by the breaking of new ground; it is not something old transformed but something new brought in and established to be here for God. It is here as a sphere of blessing for men and women, but its ultimate purpose is what it is to be for God.

J.L. Saul's first impression of how great the assembly was - the "me", the mystery of the body of Christ - must have been a very great impact on Paul's mind; his first impressions of what the Lord was forming here by the Spirit. those few brethren who were persecuted.

E.C.B. Yes; quite a different impression from what he had been going on with before. I have no doubt that in all the piety of a strict Jew he was persecuting the assembly as something that replaced what he was devoted to. Now he discovers that there is a glorified Man who is devoted to the assembly that he was seeking to ravage. There is a hymn that refers to the church as 'by schisms rent asunder by heresies distressed'. That is not a view of the body of Christ because the body of Christ can never be rent by schisms or by heresy; it subsists whatever the external situation may be. The question of fellowship arises separately, really because people are not faithful to what relates to Christ's body. But 'Me' in the scripture, "Why dost thou persecute me?", transcends every breakdown that has come in. It shows that there is some thing here to which Christ is devoted. Would that more believers were devoted to it too.

J.L. It is Christ, the Head, described in the body. Here it would be in the care and protection that Saul found as coming into it.

E.C.B. I think that, and that if you looked at His body you would expect to find it in the same conditions of rest that He is in Himself. You cannot, after all, think of the Head at rest and the body all over the place. I think that that is why, in the history of things, the assembly as a place of salvation is brought out first in order to bring out a realm of security and peace so that greater truths may be developed. It is only in that kind of rest that you can understand what 'Me' as His body is. Certainly it is the only circumstance in which you can experience union.

A.J.W. After Saul was protectively struck down he must have received some impression of salvation from the Lord when He said "Why dost thou persecute me? ".

E.C.B. He would find immediately, especially as he was obedient to what the Lord said, that he was now in a place of safety on earth. Of course we can understand from other scriptures how he arrived at some sense of his safety eternally. I think it is an interesting expression you used, that the Lord is acting protectively in regard to Saul, even in saying to him "Why dost thou persecute me? ". because the effect of that was to divert him from a course which could really only have led to the loss of his own life.

A.J.W. Did Mr Raven say that the Lord had a tender plant in that soil?

E.C.B. Yes, I think He had, but He had a suitable place in which to put it, a place where it would not be exposed to every stormy wind that blew. He had a place where it could be nourished and at rest, where there were men that watered the plants.

J.L. Would that be an important matter in the preaching? You do not divorce it from the truth of the assembly.

E.C.B. Yes, Mr Stoney speaks about that with the very greatest severity; the divorce of the truth of the assembly from the gospel he regards as one of Satan 's greatest triumphs. It is making things that are for the benefit of man of the first priority rather than what is for the heart of Christ. The truth as to the assembly is ministering to the heart of Christ. Salvation and forgiveness of sins are ministering to the need of man. It is often a test for us; and it is a test in Christendom, you can see it, as to what is the order of priority.

J.L. So that Acts 13 brings that home; "they were ministering to the Lord and fasting".

E.C.B. Yes, we are not told what particular kind of meeting was going on - it was clearly a meeting, because the assembly was there and things were proceeding - but it says "they were ministering to the Lord". (I was not so concerned about the fasting although much could be said about that.) Although they were praising God in chapter 2 - "praising God, and having favour with all the people" - it seems to me that in chapter 13 the assembly has become a place in which the Lord has become the object of those who are gathered. Now that is what characterises the assembly in Ephesians 3; and it is something that was not really established under Peter but under Paul.

J.L. Say more as to the link with Ephesians 3.

E.C.B. "To him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages" is ministering to the Lord. I am not sure whether "the Lord" here in Acts 13 just refers to Christ or is intended as a name of God. But in any case it shows that divine Persons have become the objective and that therefore persons in the assembly have passed from apprehending a sphere of salvation which would be for their blessing, to realising that the assembly has another purpose, that is to minister to the Lord. This involves the satisfaction of God I think.

Rem. In Matthew 11 the Lord speaks of taking My yoke upon you and finding rest. It seems that, as we get in contact with Christ, we continue to find rest there, where we found it first of all; and it is a sphere where the Father is known.

E.C.B. I think that is right. In Matthew the Lord speaks of finding rest to your souls in chapter 11 some time before He speaks of building "my assembly" in chapter 16, as if He sees from His side the need to bring in conditions of peace and rest before what is· related to the assembly can really be apprehended. I am sure it lies in the experience of the brethren that assembly truth is not really apprehended in conditions of disturbance. In fact, whenever disturbance comes in, it seems to destroy assembly experience. But the assembly is characteristically a place where things proceed in the peace of which Jesus spoke when He came in among His own. He left it there, and I think that the assembly known as a place of salvation is to set everybody at rest. It protects them and takes care of them, but it sets everybody at rest; then as at rest, they can enjoy greater things that belong to the assembly.

F.H. Are not these conditions then becoming increasingly precious to us?

E.C.B. I am sure that that is right. And I think we are finding that, with the saints substantially united together as to their outlook on things, much greater progress in the truth is possible.

A.J.W. Do you not think we are getting back to a state of things that must have been found at the beginning of the revival? The Lord would revive us before the end. It was not anything in relation to the need of men they were engaged in. There must have been a state that considered for the Lord and ministered to Him.

E.C.B. I am sure that that is right. It Is very interesting to follow some of these things through the history of the recovery. At the beginning the cry was "Behold, the bridegroom; go forth to meet him", Matt 25: 6; that is what is for His satisfaction. But after a time brothers who are generally described as the 'evangelists' got a great deal of thrust behind them in a service that is needed (because the gospel has to be preached, the service of the evangelist carried on) but when that became the objective one result was division because there was a turning to what was for the benefit of man instead of the meeting of the Bridegroom. I think that the Lord and the Spirit, especially in the last days, would revive us very much in regard to the meeting of the Bridegroom.

S.M. Should ministering to the Lord be a feature that should characterise all our assemblings? It does not say here it was the Supper but they were together. I am thinking about what you said as to conditions of rest: if there are suitable conditions each occasion would afford divine Persons something, do you think?

E.C.B. I am sure of that. We should have that in mind when we come to the meeting. No doubt we all expect to receive something as we come, but the real purpose for which we are together is that the Lord may get something from it. If the brethren are edified it is intended to enrich what the Lord will get at another time. But the two thoughts that relate to "me", that is the assembly which is His body and ministering to the Lord, are really the distinctive characteristics of Paul's ministry. The first is brought out in Ephesians 1 and the second in Ephesians 3. They are the highest points of Paul's ministry. He can use the truth of the body in a different sense in Corinthians in order to bring in correction locally, but it is not the same thought as in Ephesians 1. The body is related to Christ as Head in Ephesians 1, the head does not "say to the feet" there; in 1 Corinthians 12 the head might be out of place, because Paul is using the figure of the human body related to the company of the saints. But "Why dost thou persecute me?" is touching the character of the Christ in relation to the body and it is in Ephesians 1 - "Gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body" - and on the level of Colossians as well. Ministering to the Lord fits into Ephesians 3; but both these things seem to me to require as a firm basis that the assembly is known as a place of security. The Lord would give us that and then show that He is able to develop things in it.

J.L. While we would not claim to be the assembly, yet we would covet to walk in the light of it and reflect the features proper to it in our gatherings, so that there is some practical answer to it.

E.C.B. I am quite sure of that. We would say on the one hand that we would not claim to be the assembly, but we should get into a very poor way if we ceased to say that we hold the truth of the assembly, because the surrender of everything lies down that channel. And to use weakness as an excuse for weakness is ultimately to surrender everything. What is needed in the situation of weakness is men who will stand, not boasting in being everything but standing for everything.

F.H. Does the Philadelphian recovery express just what you say: kept the word of His patience and not denied His name? That is the assembly where brotherly love is.

E.C.B. I think that is helpful, and we should be finding these things amongst us. You get the sense developed in localities, I think, of a net that does not break, because relationships are well understood and are all secure, every knot in the net will hold. You come into your own locality and you know that you could test every knot in the net and every one would hold. That is, when I meet you and you meet somebody else, the knot would hold at all these points. The net does not break because it is not man's work, it is the work of God.

A.J.W. The assembly is His own providing at the present time for Himself.

E.C.B. Yes. I think it is very important to keep that aspect in mind, that while the Lord has provided the assembly as a place into which He brings those who are being saved, yet it is something for His own heart. All this increases our desire to be fully in it and available in it. We have, I think we can say, rich experiences at the Supper. Would that we were more up to what we have then! What is at the Supper is available for all who are the Lord's if they would walk consistently with the truth that underlies it.

Ques. Is there any link between Solomon's palanquin which he made for himself and what you are speaking about? It is paved with love by the daughters of Jerusalem (see Song of Sol 3: 9,10).

E.C.B. Yes, I think that is very helpful. There is what Solomon made for himself, but then the daughters of Jerusalem contributed to it by way of affection. No doubt they brought in something material, but what they contributed to it was affection. It shows that Solomon was their object, they were not their own object in it. That is what I think we need to hold to in regard to the assembly, that Christ must be its object.

MACDUFF

29 July 1973

E.C.B. - E.C.Burr (London ), F.H. - F.Hepburn (Macduff), J.L. - J.Lovie (Macduff);

A.J.W. - A.J.Wilson (Macduff)

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